What are the best free online learning websites? Going back to school can be a little intimidating especially if you are paying thousands of dollars to improve your education.
What if you could get all the education you need for free?
In this article, you are going to learn the top 8 free online learning websites you can use to improve your skills or learn new ones.
1. Coursera
Website: coursera.org
Coursera was founded in 2012 by Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. This learning platform provides one of the best free online courses and educational services in diverse fields from great universities and companies worldwide.
The educational services provided by Coursera include but are not limited to on-demand video lectures, homework, community-based discussions, etc. Courses partners with more than 270 universities and companies and it offers free online courses to students from all over the world.
Not only Coursera is one of the oldest free online course platforms, but it also offers courses in many languages which makes it stand out among its competitors. Courses on Coursera are aggregated from dozens of top universities and companies which helps it offer some of the best free online courses you can find.
At Coursera, you can learn pretty much anything of your choice from engineering, IT, languages, data science, management, economics, etc.
Coursera also provides paid services that include more exercises, projects, and certifications. For example, you can get certification or degree options, but, you must have paid options for these services.
2. Udemy
Website: udemy.com
Udemy was founded in 2010 by Gagan Biyani, Eren Bali, and Oktay Caglar. It is a reputable website that connects students with the best instructors worldwide. This learning platform helps millions of students, has thousands of instructors, and comes in many languages. Udemy is mainly known for business courses including sales, human resources, management, economics, finance, and more.
On top of business courses, you can also find engineering-related courses such as IT, data science, programming languages, software testing, software engineering, and more.
A large number of courses on Udemy are offered in video formats from industry leaders which helps you capture the skills and acquire high-level knowledge in no time. You can also find classes in all levels such as beginners, intermediate, and advanced. Having everything in a video format, however, puts limitations on your learning abilities especially those who prefer other methods such as hands-on. Additionally, there are limitations to the number of courses you can take for free. You also need to pay to get certifications.
3. Academic Earth
Website: academicearth.org
Academic Earth is a free online learning website launched in 2009. The website provides different university courses in multiple subjects from top universities.
4. Khan Academy
Website: khanacademy.org
Khan Academy started in 2008 and offers students free online courses where they can study at their own pace. Featured courses include practical exercises, instructional videos, and many more. Classes are also categorized from young learners in kindergarten to high school and college-level free courses.
Khan Academy covers math, science, history, and much more. They also include exam prep materials such as LSAT, Praxis, SAT, etc.
5. Edx
Website: edx.org
EDX is an open learning platform that provides university-level courses. Diverse disciples are covered and it is accessible worldwide. All courses are free of charge and you can pay if you need certifications.
What I like about Edx is its great variety of courses from top-tier universities and renowned professors. You have the option to choose from thousands of free courses on Edx ranging from business administration, foreign languages, literature, business, engineering, IT, data science, etc. The platform is user-friendly and you can easily create an account and enroll in free courses online.
Being free, however, does not mean you will get everything. While you can take courses free of charge on Edx, some courses do not allow you to get grades and if you need a certification, you will need to make a payment.
6. Alison
Website: Alison.com
Alison is a platform that provides free courses online. This website focuses on workplace skills and you can have certifications and diplomas from the courses you took at a small price. If you don’t need a certification or a diploma, you can learn anything offered by Alison for free.
Some of the free online courses you should expect from Alison include programming, languages, businesses, IT, etc.
Charges may be included depending on the service you request.
7. Code Academy
Website: codeacademy.com
Code Academy provides educational materials related to programming. Dozens of programming languages such as Java, JavaScript, Ruby, SQL, C++, Python, and many more can be found there.
Code Academy stands out among competitors as it solely focuses on programming and similar skill sets. No matter how much experience you have, you can find courses that match your level of experience.
If you want to expand your programming skills or are new to programming, Code Academy will be a great place to start. Courses are also delivered on-demand meaning you can enroll in courses right after creating an account.
One of the drawbacks of Code Academy is that there are no live lectures which means the student-teacher interactions are limited. Access to grades, certifications, and all materials also requires an upgrade in your subscription services.
8. Future Learn
Website: Futurelearn.com
Future Learn is one of the best Westies that offer free online courses. Founded in 2012, this British-based online learning platform offers more than 1400 courses from top universities which can help you develop great skills needed for your success.
At Future Learn you can learn almost every subject ranging from Healthcare and Medicine, IT, business and management, Tech and IT, Science and engineering, psychology, and many more. Courses at Future Learn are short usually ranging from 2 to 3 weeks making it possible to complete for individuals with busy schedules.
Being short and concise also means you don’t in-depth details you need from the course especially if you want advanced knowledge. Another drawback of Future Learn is that you don’t get unlimited/lifetime access to the courses. You will have access to the course material for the duration of the course.
9. Udacity
Udacity is one of the best websites with free online courses. Stanford professors created Udacity to offer free online courses to students worldwide in the IT industry. At Udacity, you can find free and paid courses that help you develop all kinds of skills and knowledge. Courses on Cybersecurity, programming, AI, and software engineering are easily found at Udacity.
What makes Udacity great is that it comes with all kinds of IT-related courses for free. These courses are also taught by top professors in the IT industry and from some of the biggest tech companies in the world such as Amazon, GithHUB, and Microsoft.
10. Memrise
Website: memrise.com
If you want to learn foreign languages from almost every country, Memrise will be your best place to start. Memrise is a website that offers free courses online to anyone interested in learning foreign languages.
Languages like English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Manrine, Korean, Danish, and many more. Courses are customized based on your level of proficiency from absolute beginners to advanced levels.
Learning a new language is usually difficult especially when you are starting from scratch. That is why having a platform that makes the learning curve easy and less stressful is great. Memrise checks all these boxes and makes learning a new language fun. You can also download its mobile app available on both Android and iPhones.
Some of the best features of Memrise are that courses and in bite-sized format where you can learn small conversations. Additionally, you start with common words first which makes it easy for you to integrate into a new culture much faster.
11. TED-Ed
Website: TED-Ed
TED-Ed is an award-winning platform for people of all kinds that helps students and teachers with educational materials to help them improve their skills and knowledge. This platform partners with more than 250,000 teachers worldwide and helps millions of people weekly.
